Consumer group cries foul over GOP's 2013 budget

The fiscal 2013 budget, which was passed in the House, would cause seniors' healthcare costs to surge and wreak havoc on Medicare and Medicaid, two new reports suggest.

The budget, which was engineered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and is expected to hit a dead end in the Senate, would cut Medicare and Medicaid spending by roughly $2.75 trillion over 10 years, according to two reports released by the consumer advocacy group Families USA.

The Medicare reform measure, which would convert the program to a voucher-based premium support system for beneficiaries born after 1957, would reduce what beneficiaries receive by 23% within seven years of taking effect, according to the group.

The budget's proposed Medicaid cuts — in addition to calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act provision expanding Medicaid eligibility — would transfer the program into a block grant program. Families USA says this “would not address healthcare spending in any rational, thoughtful way that would lead to long-term, sustainable deficit reduction.”

The report was released in two parts. Click here for the report titled “The Republican Budget Proposal: Ending Medicare As We Know It? Again,” and here to read “Republicans Again Propose Slashing Funding for Medicaid, Medicare, and Other Health Programs.”

While long-term care professionals have at least two more weeks to agonize over the fate of a bill that would permanently repeal the current Medicare physicians funding formula, a host of other key funding "extenders" set to expire also hang in the balance.

Nearly four months into the year, a 2015 calendar sporting nude photographs of the residents of Pleasant Pointe Assisted Living in Akron, OH, are still flying out the door — so much so that a second printing was ordered.